Oh, no. I'm sorry, I was just ruminating out loud about the idiocy of some of our laws. It really wasn't ire either, more like being gobsmacked at an over the top reaction by our lawmakers.

Doesnt the Zero Tolerance policy apply no matter which line is used? You aren't concerned about losing GE if you go through the regular lines but get caught not declaring the food items (Kinder Eggs or no)?

I am thinking to get GE but I generally bring a few Cuban cigars and alcohol from my trips abroad - now not sure if its worth it the money for GE to never bring the stuff back...

I don't think it makes any difference which line you use. I'm sure if a GE member uses the regular lines that the CBP agent will know that the pax has GE. Get caught failing to declare and the possible repercussions will be the same. Indeed, it might be worse - you might get asked why you chose to use the regular line instead of the kiosk - it could look suspicious (like maybe it's because it's not your passport and you avoided the kiosk because your fingerprints don't match).

You're still taking a risk by not declaring everything, even if you know it's allowed. The penalty is just greater with GE, because in addition to any other punishment you may receive (lecture, fine, flagged for permanent secondary), you also lose GE.

It hasn't changed what I bring back, but the zero tolerance does mean I am aware and now declare things I never declared before: energy bars from the US that left and came back with me, gum, cookies, tea bags and chocolate. I was not aware of the drug requirements, so now I'll have to start declaring the antibiotics and other meds that I always take with me. It takes longer (almost 20 minutes to wait in line to get my bag xrayed at an ag station because I declared a box of chocolates), but still better than the wait if you are unfortunate enough to be sitting in the back and you are the second (or third) big plane to land in a short time.

But then I admit it, I am zero tolerance for risk when it comes to anything to do with the government. Not advising anyone to follow my lead, just sharing my thinking and approach (very conservative).

I find it amusing to think that a cotton shirt is a plant product, while gourmet sea salt is a mineral, not a food, yet I think they would expect the salt declared but not the shirt.

If you read the ingredients of a candy bar, you will find things like dairy ingredients and sugar, which are of animal or plant origin.

Given that the couple of times I did take candy and such entailed a 10-20 minute delay for an indifferent but officious once-over, my usual practice is to avoid travelling with items I need to call "food". They almost always have food where I'm going.

At my GE interview I was told that I should declare all/any food and let the customs officer (after my receipt prints) determine if I need to be sent to AG. He said "better be safe than sorry because as a GE member you are under a scrutiny" Tend to agree with him but on the other hand why do we pay for expedite service if we are almost always guaranteed to be send to AG?

+1000. As "Trusted Travelers," we should be expected to know the rules, and self-declare items that are in need of screening. Except for random inspections, we should never see an AG line.

There are revised food inspection/control rules that take place that most GE members wouldn't know. Even someone who monitors government for a profession may miss out on changes that have been instituted.

As someone who declares food on more trips than not --always declared as required -- I am sent to Ag inspection fewer than 5% of the times when I've declared food at a US port of entry. And as a GE user, my rate of getting sent to Ag is somewhat lower than when entering as an APC user.

Trusted Traveler is they trust you to not break custom rules and that trust is "earned" based on background checks. It is not trusting your ability to correctly evaluate whether an article is prohibited else they would have required you to take a CBP AG field officer exam during GE interview.

It's a trust that the GE passengers will answer questions honestly in order to facilitate CBP doing its assigned tasks. It is indeed not a trust that the average GE passenger is going to know all the rules for which CBP is tasked.

Whether you are sent to Ag seems to depend a lt on which airport you are arriving into and then which terminal. Most of my US arrivals are at EWR. I find I'm waved through most of the time when I tell them what I have at EWR-C. I'm almost always sent to Ag at EWR-B where as soon as they see my card and ask about my circle and hear anything about food they send me over without even letting me finish a sentence.

So, I have always been curious about this, after hearing stories of GE people getting in trouble for not declaring a banana from the plane.

How about sealed snacks (chips, cookies, etc.) either from the lounge or from the plane? I usually end up with a bunch of those I would rather take home with me, but I usually end up discarding before entering so I won't have to deal with customs. What do you do with those, do you declare them? I don't really want to risk going to inspection over this, as I often have tight schedule and just want to go home.

I've been declaring as the GE kiosk question includes the word food not just meat and plant products but food.

So after reading all this discussion, when I came thru at MSP about 10 days ago I paid close attention to the text on the kiosk and I didn't see "food" -- I saw (not in order) fruits, vegetables, meat, plants, seeds and dairy products, etc.

Now I had a couple boxes of stroopwafels (having transited AMS) but I checked "No" (would it be a false answer to say YES to a question when the answer is NO?). Then I went to the officer, held up my box of stroopwafels and asked with these should I should answer YES to the fruits, vegetable, meat question. He have me a "hell no, don't waste my time" look, said no and took my slip.

My previous trip was from DUB. After you go thru pre-clearance you can buy all kinds of snacks and candy (even booze). Are these all individually inspected by the USDA?

I don't know why OP started a new thread on this topic but this has been discussed ad nauseam in another GE thread.

Declaring does not mean CBP will inspect every item. If the word food is in the question, then your responsibility as a trusted traveler is to comply and be truthful and complete in declaration. Whether CBP waived you thru is their discretion. The next CBP agent you encounter may not look kindly on undeclared food and "an agent at MSP told me last month not to declare waffles" as a reason may not fly.

If the question has the word food in it, I would declare. The word food is buried in the meat/plant/seed question (at least at YUL GE kiosk two weeks ago) but there are reports that the word food in absent from some GE kiosks.

A thread's OP is not necessarily the person who started a new thread on a topic.

What human-consumed food is there that doesn't have any meat/fish/poultry/plant/seed/dairy products in it?

The language in the questions on some of the kiosks may be slightly different than the language encountered at other times on kiosks.